Rest of the world gangs up on Osborne’s austerity

A few months ago, Chancellor George Osborne MP was pointing to various international bodies as backing his fiscal austerity measures – the OECD Secretary General, Angel Gurria, went out on a limb, for which unions slammed him, and the Tories are still claiming that President Obama’s administration backs their deep and harsh deficit reduction plans (although no way is that what he said on his visit this week!) But the economic figures for the last two quarters, showing the UK economy flatlining, have seen the international support for Osborne begin to fall away.

On Wednesday the OECD came out with a rather more balanced assessment in their Economic Outlook of the risks of austerity, as analysed in Left Food Forward (hat tip) and revealed in interviews with Gurria’s deputy, Pier Carlo Padoan.

Written by Owen Tudor

I’ve been the Head of the TUC’s European Union and International Relations Department since 2003 and have worked at the TUC since 1984. I’ve been a member of the Health and Safety Commission, the Civil Justice Council, the Social Security Advis…